A New Life
by Little Fae Sorceress
Summary: Little Rogue and Frosch live alone peacefully in a quiet forest, where not many care to enter. What happens when a certain blonde dragon slayer gets lost and realizes someone lives in these seemingly empty woods? My take on how Sting and Rogue met, and how they became friends.


**A/N: Hiya everyone! This is my first Fairy Tail story and I'm not sure if everyone is OOC or not, but enjoy! **

Rogue walked around the woods aimlessly, a young Frosch sleeping peacefully in his arms.

The sun had just risen and Rogue was still sleeping when Frosch had poked his face gently, pointing towards the forest surrounding the camp.

"Frosch!" said Frosch, practicing one of the only words he knew how to say.

Frosch had randomly ran through the woods, weaving in and out between the trees and occasionally summoning his wings to circle Rogue's head, making Rogue laugh and smile at his antics.

After an hour or so of playing, Frosch decided he was tired and curled up on Rogue's shoulder and quickly fell asleep.

Rogue still wanted to explore though, so he continued to look around, taking note of possible shelters and places to avoid.

The walk had been quite peaceful, the birds chirping cheerfully and Frosch's rhythmic breathing lulling Rogue into a state of serenity.

After a few minutes Rogue paused suddenly, he could faintly hear voices with his sharp hearing and he quickly sank into the shadows.

"Sting are you sure?" asked a small voice.

"Yes I'm sure. I could smell someone living around here, maybe we can ask them for directions to the next town," replied another voice.

"The only people who live here are me and Frosch," thought Rogue frowning. "If he can smell us, he'll be able to track us too."

Rogue concentrated heavily, slowly sinking into the shadows and looking for the person who would be able to find Frosch and him.

To his surprise, instead of an adult of some sort, it was just a kid.

He seemed to be around Rogue's age with wild blonde hair, blue eyes, and a scar above his right eyebrow.

Accompanying him was a small red cat, not unlike Rogue's own best friend.

"_He must be Sting,_" thought Rogue.

Sting paused for a second and looked directly in Rogue's direction.

He opened his mouth, letting two oddly sharp canines appear.

"White Dragon's-," began Sting.

Rogue's eyes widened and he hurriedly exited the shadows, slapping a hand over Sting's mouth.

"Are you crazy?!" Rogue whisper shouted, his worry for Frosch overruling his curiosity for Sting's magic.

Sting slapped Rogue's hand away and whisper-shouted back, "What do you mean, I'm the one who's crazy?! I don't go popping up from shadows and scaring the crap out of people!"

"You were going to wake up Frosch," glared Rogue, gesturing to the sleeping exceed.

"Well sorry!" said Sting sarcastically, raising his voice. "How would I know you have a sleeping cat-frog with you!"

Rogue winced at Sting's volume and realized Frosch was waking up.

"You idiot!" hissed Rogue.

Frosch sleepily rubbed his eyes and looked around, realizing they had company.

Squeaking in panic, Frosch summoned his wings and hurriedly flew upwards.

"Head back to camp," called Rogue. "I'll handle them."

Frosch looked at him doubtfully, until Rogue smiled reassuringly at him, which caused him to nod and fly off.

"Sting!" said the red cat, pulling on Sting's sleeve. "He's like me!"

"Talking animal with wings?" said Sting. "I would say you're pretty similar to each other Lector, except for the fact that he's a frog."

"Frosch is a cat!" protested Rogue.

"Why is he wearing a frog costume then?" asked Sting.

Rogue's sighed and replied, "That's irrelevant."

"Fine, whatever," said Sting. "Could you just give us some directions? We're lost."

"No," deadpanned Rogue, sinking into the shadows.

"White Dragon's Claw!" chanted Sting quickly.

The attack launched Rogue away from the shadows and off his feet.

"What was that for?" asked Rogue resentfully.

"You were going to leave," said Sting.

Rogue went to get up, but realized he couldn't move and a white mark shined brightly on his skin.

"What did you do?!" said Rogue panickedly.

"Relax, I'll take it off as soon as you tell me where the nearest town is," said Sting smirking.

Rogue growled and shouted, "Shadow Dragon's Roar!"

A stream of shadows hit Sting and knocked him off of his feet, making his lose his concentration and allowing Rogue to move again.

"So that's how you want to play it?" asked Sting getting to his feet.

Rogue cracked his knuckles and they charged each other simultaneously, Rogue's hand masked in shadows and Sting's hand swallowed in a bright light.

"Go Sting!" shouted Lector. "You're the best!"

They clashed together in a flurry of blows before backing off and catching their breath.

"I like you," said Sting smiling.

Rogue grudgingly cracked a smile as well, "You're fun to fight."

"So you're a dragon slayer too?" asked Sting.

"Yeah," replied Rogue.

"Wanna be friends?" asked Sting.

"...Sure," said Rogue. "I'll give you directions after we head back to my camp. I'm hungry."

"Awesome!" said Sting pumping a fist in the air.

Rogue began to run back to camp, "I don't like to leave Frosch alone!"

Sting laughed at his protective nature before nodding at Lector and running alongside Rogue.

After several minutes, they stopped at the base of a large tree.

Frosch was climbing up and down the low hanging tree branches and humming to himself until he spotted Rogue.

"Rogue!" cried Frosch happily, flying into Rogue's awaiting arms.

He peered behind Rogue to see Sting and Lector waiting to the side awkwardly.

Answering the silent question, Rogue said, "This is Sting and Lector, they're our friends."

Frosch nodded in understanding before hopping down from Rogue's arms and putting out a small hand.

"Frosch!" he said excitedly.

"Lector," replied Lector, shaking his hand.

Rogue left them to acquaint with each other as he jumped onto the tree branches.

Climbing higher and higher until he reached an extremely thin branch, he slid a hand into a small hollow with practiced ease, and took out a small bag of supplies.

Jumping down straight down from the tree, Rogue slipped into the shadows at the second, safely avoiding the broken bones which would've occurred had he actually hit the ground.

"That's so cool!" said Sting. "I wish I could do that!"

"I can't exactly paralyze people," replied Rogue.

"I guess that's pretty cool too," said Sting sheepishly.

Handing Sting a granola bar and taking one for himself, Rogue took out a package of canned fish and gave it to the two exceeds to share.

As they quickly finished their small meal, Sting asked, "Is that _all_ you eat every day?"

"Nah, I'm just low on supplies," said Rogue. "I'll need to visit town soon."

"If you live out here, how do you get jewels then?" said Sting.

"I don't," shrugged Rogue. "I steal food and whatever we need. It's not like anyone's going to suspect a shadow to steal stuff."

"But that's wrong," said Sting. "Why don't you just take a job?"

"What kind of job?" asked Rogue.

"You know, the ones where people ask you to help you with something and then they give you jewels for it. I normally take the ones that involve beating people up," said Sting.

"Well...where can I get a job then?" asked Rogue.

"At a guild. I joined a small one, but I don't think I'll stay for long. It's just until I can get strong enough to join one of those really strong guilds!" said Sting excitedly. "Like Fairy Tail! Natsu Dragoneel is there, and he's awesome! He's a dragon slayer just like us, and he causes a bunch of destruction and explosions!"

"That...doesn't sound too bad," said Rogue thoughtfully.

"How about you come with me back to my guild?" asked Sting. "We can be partners!"

"I don't know," said Rogue hesitantly. "Don't they ever run out of jobs and stuff?"

"Nope, you'd be surprised at the amount of bad things that happen to people," laughed Sting.

"What do you think Frosch?" asked Rogue.

"I think you should come with Sting and me!" said Lector.

"Frosch..Frosch thinks so too!" said Frosch.

Rogue gaped at Frosch's new vocabulary while Sting and Lector looked at him hopefully.

Rogue looked at from Sting to Lector to Frosch, and back over again, until he decided, "Alright then, when do we leave?"

All three of them cheered at his decision and Sting replied, "As soon as we get out of the forest."

"This way then," said Rogue, leading the small group.

As they walked, Frosch flew around the trees with Lector happily, while Sting threw an arm around Rogue, grinning.

"_This might not be so bad_," thought Rogue, exiting the forest with new friends and a new life.


End file.
